US district court: Ohio must allow illegally purged voters to vote

A US district court
ruled Wednesday that Ohio must allow most unlawfully
purged voters to vote in November.

The decision came after a September ruling in which a
Cincinnati-based appeals court
declared the removal of some 2 million qualified but
inactive voters from the voter registration
rolls illegal.

"If those who were unlawfully removed from the voter rolls are
not allowed to vote, then the Secretary of State is continuing to
to disenfranchise voters in violation of federal law," wrote
Judge George
Smith, who serves at
the Southern District of Ohio.

Over the last several years, Ohio Secretary of State Jon
Husted cancelled the registration of voters who did not update
their registration or vote over six years, as well as removing
deceased voters and duplicate registrations from the rolls.
Voters removed are sent a confirmation form when they are
removed.

The appeals court said in September that the forms
provided do "nothing to correct
the fact that Ohio has, for years, been removing voters from the
rolls because they failed to respond to forms that are blatantly
non-compliant."

OhioCarlos Barria/Reuters

Voting rights groups has pushed to restore the voting
rights of illegal purged voters, and even
sued Ohio's elections chief. The state
proposed to the district court to only allow a small amount
of purged voters to vote.

The district court turned down the state's plan. The final
decision lets anyone purged since 2011 and anyone who has
moved within their county to vote.

“Our main concern was to protect the integrity of the
election by not having to reinstate deceased voters, those who
moved out of state, or are otherwise ineligible. We will fully
comply with the judge’s order to count votes of people who remain
eligible in their original county and continue to focus on the
important work of administering a smooth election,” he said in a
statement.

As early voting is underway in the crucial swing state,
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are polling tightly, with
Clinton slightly trailing Trump with 44% to 48%, according to new
CNN/ORC polls.